Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. If I did, Loke, Natsu, Laxus, and Rogue would be in a brawl over Lucy, while Gajeel and Levy eloped. ;-)
Natsu was miserable. He'd hadn't felt so... horrible in his life since Igneel disappeared on July 7, X777. He couldn't describe the overwhelming guilty feeling that consumed him the more he thought of Lucy. Everything went wrong the day they went for that job he picked out.
Flashback
"Lucy! Happy! I've got us a job! Come on! Let's go!" Natsu called out to her across the guild hall. The girl sighed, while Happy flew into the air.
"Okay, but promise not to burn any buildings down this time, Natsu! I mean it!" she said angrily, but couldn't keep the smile off her face at the prospect of a new adventure.
"Please, Natsu is more likely to ruin Erza's cake than not burn something down," Gray said tauntingly.
"What was that, Popsicle Head?"
"You heard me, Flame Brain."
"BRING IT!"
"YOU'RE ON!"
Lucy groaned and sat back down. They'd be here for a while.
End Flashback
The job was to fight a dark guild, and was definitely dangerous, but Natsu was eager to fight some bad guys, and Lucy wanted her share of the very generous reward ("They're offering 1,000,000 Jewels for this?!") for her rent. The guild was called Serpent's Fang, and they were causing trouble for the nearby village.
Things had been going well, and the three of them had tracked down the guild hall. Soon, they had defeated every wizard there and only person left to take out was the guild master. He was a scrawny guy, but agile and crafty. Natsu had been fighting him while Lucy and Virgo were tying up the other wizards with magic-cancelling rope, and Happy was rambling on about a fish he'd found for Charle.
The dark mage used a strange, darker form of Requip, or so Natsu thought, and he pulled out knife after knife in their fight, no matter how many times he melted the blades or disarmed him. And when it finally seemed like he had pulled out the last of his knives and was out, the guy leapt over him and went for Lucy, sending a pulse of some dark magic at him and knocking him to the ground. But he couldn't get back up, and was paralyzed as he watched Lucy fight the man.
He'd failed her.
Aries sat next to Lucy in Leo's damaged house, both of them silent. Aries was the only one of them left. After all, she was the only one of them besides Leo who knew what it was like to be treated worse than just a shield, to be thought of as someone's property. It was a terrible feeling that you never shook away, no matter how many years.
Even now, Aries couldn't help but apologize on automatic. She was afraid that, one day, she wouldn't, and her key holder would get angry.
So, she truly understood Lucy's new experience, and would try to be a support for her, just like Leo had been for her. It was what Spirits do.
Lucy felt herself being summoned again, the tugging almost painful. She gasped, trying not to go, trying to stay in the Celestial World, where it was safe, where she wouldn't be hurt.
Aries noticed, and cried out in alarm.
"Lucy! Fight it! Stay with me! I'll try to help you! Just force the gate to close!" she told the blond, and a new foreign magic channeled into her.
Aries is sharing her magic with me. I can't let her efforts go to waste! I'm staying right here!
Closing her eyes, Lucy grunted with the effort it took to stay, and in her mind, she could see the golden door opening, and sent all the magic she had at it, hoping that it would stay closed. Please, please, please stay closed!
But it wasn't enough. She wasn't as powerful as the Zodiacs, and even with Aries helping her, she couldn't hold it shut much longer.
"I can't, Aries. I have to go through." she whispered.
Aries looked upset. "I'm sorry! I'm not strong enough as a defensive magic user! I'll keep trying though!" she said, and more power channeled into Lucy.
Lucy focused on the gate again. Stay shut! Stay shut!
She started to push it shut, ever so slowly. For a moment, she thought she could actually do it, but then a sudden pulse of magic from the other side swung it wide open, pulling her into it. She began to shimmer as particles of gold slowly faded into Earthland.
"Lucy! Don't give up!" Aries said, searching internally for some more of her magic, but she'd pulled all of it out to help her friend, and it wasn't enough.
Lucy suddenly released the air in her lungs, and the burst into gold that faded away to another world.
The last words Lucy heard was her pink friend crying out with apologies.
Darius was in a bad mood. He'd needed to use a lot of magic this time to summon her. She was resisting being pulled through. For a moment, he'd felt a bit of another magic, something stronger in the background, fuelling her.
She flashed into his dingy, tiny house all of a sudden, looking tired and worried about something. But Darius didn't care.
"You're late. What took you so long?" he asked, pretending to not know. She seemed to shrink a bit when he looked at her.
"I had to... uh, I needed to-" she stammered, trying to think of something.
"You were trying to stay in the Spirit World?" he offered.
"No! I-" she jumped in, but he shook his head, stopping her.
"I'll let it slide this once. Move, we're going to the guild hall." Darius said, and Lucy nodded frantically.
"Thank you, Master." she said, hating herself on the inside for actually using the term.
"The darkest forest I can find in Fiore is the Waas Forest to the north of Magnolia. It's far away from civilization. There are rumours of a man there who owns rare Celestial Keys. Lucy and her summoner where probably in that forest. There are also stories of a dark guild near there in the mountains. Little is known about it, but it's a place to start." Levy said to the small team going off in search of Lucy.
Of course, Natsu, Erza, and Gray had quickly volunteered to go when the Master asked who wanted to, and with the arguments they put up, Makarov eventually said they could go. After all, they'd go whether he gave them permission or not.
Along with them was Levy, who'd be their guide, Mira, who looked almost demonic when Master nearly declined her as well, and Gajeel, who'd had experience dealing with dark guilds and was a good choice. Joining the fairies was Yukino, who was there as a Celestial Wizard to summon Lucy later.
"Well, let's get going then. Pack your bags, guys!" Natsu exclaimed, and they all gave a hopeful smile.
Shadow's Claw was worse than Darius's house. If she had thought his home was the most disgusting place to ever exist, she was quickly proven wrong at the sight of the dark guild.
It was a faded building with paint peeling from the walls. The outside was filthy, covered in dirt, mould, and whatever the dark spots she noticed were, along with the blatant vandalism. There were signs of damage where people had probably fought and crashed into the guild hall, and some claw slashes that she hoped were from monsters.
Painted on the door was the only thing not damaged by weather or magic, a symbol. An image of a dark shadowed hand's talons leaving claw marks behind. Their guild mark.
Darius pushed the door open and walked through the hall, leaving Lucy on her own. She looked around the guild. It was tattered and looked like no one had taken care of it in a very long while. But her eyes widened as she noticed the old wooden floorboards. She hadn't seen floorboards like these since-
Flashback
Lucy saw in the corner of her eyes the light shining off of a weapon, and she ducked as he swung at her.
"Virgo!" she called out, and the pink maiden ran over fight the wizard. But he avoided her and went straight for Lucy, who hurried to grab a key and summon another Spirit.
But she tripped on a wooden floor board as she backed up and fell to the floor of the guild hall as the mage whispered a spell under his breath before he stabbed her with the dagger. As it hit, she cried out in pain, but then shivered at the uncomfortable tingling coming from the wound. Although she'd never been stabbed, she was sure that she wasn't supposed to feel like that.
"Princess!" her Spirit shouted, and as Natsu roared out her name and Happy cried out, the man fled, but she was slowly starting to feel fuzzy and chilly. The knife in her stomach got much sharper in her vision as the other things around her became hazy. She noticed the black handle and coiled snake design wrapped around it, but really, she noticed the gleam of the silver metal sticking out of her, and the red staining it.
"Is this... the end for me?"
End Flashback
Pushing herself out of her memories, she noticed the cold sweat that coated her, and as she wiped it away, she realized that she was shaking.
A very drunk guild member walked up to her and tried to seduce her, but she quickly maneuvered her way away from him and ended up sitting at a bar stool at the edge of the bar and reminiscing of Fairy Tail and strawberry milkshakes.
Those thoughts were hastily broken when a rumbling noise shook the guild hall. Looking around frantically, she saw that everyone in the hall was just as shocked as she was, and had no idea what was happening.
Suddenly, with a flash of light, the building suddenly began to fall apart into pieces. The roof caved in, the walls turned into dust, and the furniture became broken and useless. The chair Lucy had been sitting on lost two of it's legs and fell over backwards, causing her to hit her head on the ground painfully.
Seeing stars, Lucy stumbled to get up and watched as the wizards around her began fighting something- someone?
Recognition flooded through her as she recognized the person, no, people!
They wore midnight blue cloaks that hid their faces, but she knew it was them as the Lost Magic demolished the guild hall. Arc of Time could rebuild broken things, but it could also speed things into the future. A future where the Shadow's Claw guild hall was abandoned and destroyed.
A familiar figure glowed with a golden light and sped through the room, knocking down mages faster than she could keep track of. Lucy smiled. Crime Sorcière.
But Darius appeared out of nowhere behind her, and she flinched.
"Alright Lucy, time to help us beat some wizards. Fight for the guild." he said, sounding encouraging, but she could feel the underlying threat. Defeat them or suffer.
Taking a deep breath, she ran forward, towards the wizard knocking out the dark mages, hoping that he'd recognize her and do something, anything, to help her.
Instinctively, she reached for her keys, and grabbed the one that radiated a warmth. She'd practised a bit after Loke had given it to her that day, and was ready to fight, even if it was for show. After all, she did have to follow Darius' orders.
The key glowed, brighter than Jellal's Meteor, brighter than Loke's Regulus magic. It glowed a pure colour, a pure white with a hint of gold Celestial power.
Jumping up, she raised the key and swung it diagonally at the enemy wizard, crying out.
"STAR STRIKE!"
There was a flash, and he was thrown to the ground. Lucy landed in a crouch, still clutching the key in her hand with a death grip.
Jellal's hood had fallen off, and she could see his face now. He looked determined for about five seconds before his face scrunched up in confusion, and his stance went slack.
"Aren't you Erza's friend? Lucy?" he said, looking at her curiously. She nodded, allowing her own mask to slip and show her true desperation and fear. But it vanished quickly, and Lucy stiffly nodded at him.
Jellal looked upset for a moment, but then he put on a blank face and got back into a battle position. Making a motion with his hands, he suddenly jumped up into the air with Meteor again, and she watched as he flew in a pattern she recognized, a constellation.
"Lucy! Knock him down!" Darius yelled from farther away, and she shivered, before closing her eyes and speaking her ultimate spell.
Survey the heavens, open the heavens
All the stars, far and wide
Show me thy appearance
With such shine.
Oh Tetrabiblos...
I am the ruler of the stars
Aspect become complete
Open thy malevolent gate
Oh 88 stars of the heaven
Shine!
Urano Metria!
As her own spell finished, and the planets she'd conjured clashed with Jellal's Grand Chariot, she felt herself feel a shift within, a sort of pride. She had done what her Master had said, and felt good about being able to help him. Even though she loathed the man, she felt her own nature as a Spirit overwhelm that and feel true joy for the first time in forever.
She had succeeded!
Her hate and anger started to fade away at this accomplishment. Sure, Darius could be cruel at times, but it was for her own good. She needed him to help her become better, a better servant to him, and any other owner she'd have in he future. She almost welcomed his corrections.
She just wanted to please him.
Jellal noticed the strange shift in Lucy's face, the sudden pride, then the determination. She looked like she actually wanted to fight him now, and this made everything even more confusing. When she'd attacked him, she'd looked scared and he'd assumed that she'd been taken hostage by Shadow's Claw, but now he wasn't sure. Maybe mind control?
She swung at him with her glowing weapon (was it a key?!) and got closer and closer to actually hitting him each time.
Think Jellal, think!
The thought struck him, and his eyes roamed around the nearly destroyed room, trying to find the source of her control. If she was being controlled by another wizard in the hall, they'd be hanging back and controlling her from a distance, because mages that controlled others were usually poor at fighting themselves, which is the main reason they made others do it for them.
He noticed the man quickly, watching Lucy as she fought him. Glaring, Jellal activated Meteor again, and bolted towards the wizard, almost getting hit by Lucy again.
He appeared out of nowhere in front of the man, and punched him in the face, hoping the shock would break the connection.
But Lucy ran towards him still, and her demeanour wasn't any different.
Could she really be a dark wizard now?
And that's it for now! Please, review, and watch for chapter eight! ^_^
